Health
Community Organizations Work to Combat Chicago’s Food Insecurity Crisis, Grocery Deserts
by Mila Brandson, Elena Hubert and Margarita Williams
This story was produced in partnership with students at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and WTTW News.
Twice a week, Circle Urban Ministries in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood opens its food pantry’s doors to the public, serving all those who come.
“It’s an area that can easily be swept under the carpet,” said Darriel Anderson, the organization’s outreach coordinator. “It really impacts a large population of Chicago.”
The Ministries’ pantry, which feeds about 1,000 people each month, operates much like a grocery store. Clients wheel carts through aisles and select items for their households.
“They’re shopping for what they want, and they have a choice of what they wanna get,” said outreach coordinator Andre Henson. “It allows us to be a little more intimate with clients, it allows us to get to know them.”
Former client Frank Smith says he appreciates the pantry so much that he began volunteering as security at the site. A survivor of multiple strokes and heart attacks alongside cancer, Smith said the pantry got him and his family through difficult times.
“What this place has done for me, it kept food in my family’s mouth(s) during those times that I couldn’t,” Smith said.
The nonprofit receives free food from the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Its pantry is one of several small pilots working with the organization.
“There are not many grocery stores that are within walking distance of our neighborhoods…” Anderson said. “It really puts a hardship on our residents.”
Another nonprofit, Dion’s Chicago Dream, hopes to remedy the food desert issue by delivering boxes of produce directly to those facing food insecurity. Englewood native Dion Dawson founded the organization in 2020 and said it has expanded in Chicago.
“If you say that you’re food insecure, and you need the access,” Dawson said. “Then we take you for your word.”
The numbers demonstrate demand. The nonprofit currently delivers food packages to more than 4,000 households in Chicago each week, with a waitlist of another 2,000 families.
“We’re not convinced that the need is going anywhere,” Dawson said. “How do we just everyday just keep chipping away and away so you can see that tangible growth?”
Dawson said his organization has received government grants, but it’s mainly supported by donations from individuals. Dion’s Chicago Dream purchases food from a local wholesaler.
“We can provide a year’s worth of fresh fruit and vegetables to a household at only $1,000 a year at cost for us,” Dawson said.
Like Dawson’s program, Rush Medical Center food distributions are also funded primarily by donations. It operates a food pantry for patients in need. Food is Medicine program director Julia Bassett said individuals are referred to the pantry by a physician based on their level of food insecurity.
“It’s gotten a bit worse, honestly,” Bassett said. “You have communities that are under-resourced, they don’t have grocery stores. We do food distributions, and that helps support but again, a Band-Aid approach.”
Bassett said the program gets around 70 physician referrals per week. With free, fresh food sourced from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, she said the program aims to alleviate comorbidity issues.
But even with distributions in place, Bassett said more food is needed.
“Continue to fund these very emergent needs of communities,” she said. “If we still have that type of support until we can get a good grocer or co-op in these communities, that would really help sustain some of the programs we have currently.”
No matter the obstacle, local organizations are still focused on supporting their own.
“We’re all in community together,” Anderson said. “We all need a helping hand.”
This year, the state of Illinois began offering grants to small grocers who open stores in food deserts through the Illinois Grocery Initiative. Chicago is also looking into opening a city-owned supermarket, but has not yet released a plan.
Until then, nonprofit organizations said they will continue to fill the gap as much as possible.
